12 THE MOUTH-OKGANS, ETC., OF 



wings are entirely absent. This beetle lays its eggs in the earth at 

 the root of some suitable plant. As soon as the larvae are 

 hatched, they crawl up the stem of the plant, and get into the 

 flower, where they rest until a bee alights upon it, when they 

 attach themselves to the bee, and in this way get carried to the 

 bee's nest, when they immediately leave the bee and attack the 

 larvae. It appears worthy of notice that these three beetles, 

 which, from a study of their structure, were placed close together 

 in classification, should, when their life-history became known, 

 prove to be so similar in their food and habits. It would seem to 

 show that there is not only a similarity of form, but a real rela- 

 tion or kinship. Numerous other instances may be cited to the 

 same effect. 



In a great many genera of beetles, the posterior wings used for 

 flying are very well developed, and in the Longhorns and those of 

 similar form they merely rest one on the other without folding ; 

 the great length both of the body and of the elytra rendering 

 folding unnecessary, but in the case of the majority of the beetles 

 (such as the Cockchafer, Dor Beetles, etc.) this is not possible, and 

 therefore they have to be folded. In the wing of the Dor Beetle, 

 it will be observed that the great costal nervure at the point of 

 flexure has a kind of knee-joint, and the other nervures are so 

 arranged as to naturally fall into folds. It is a much simpler 

 arrangement than that of the Earwig, which is folded both trans- 

 versely and in a fan-like manner, and differs considerably from 

 that of the crickets, which have wings that close up precisely like 

 a lady's fan. 



In the case of the Brachelytra^ which have long, membranous 

 wings, and very short elytra under which they have to be stowed 

 away, the method of folding is the same, except that there are two 

 additional folds ; the knee-joint in the costal nervure is folded only 

 one-third of the entire length of the wing from its base, the 

 remaining two-thirds being folded once over and once under. 



The eyes are compound, generally two in number, but the 

 Water Beetle (Gyrinus), or Whirligig, has four distinct compound 

 eyes, two of which are for looking upwards or above the water, 

 and the other two for looking downwards into the water as it spins 

 about on the surface, looking like a drop of quicksilver. Some of 



